The Jade Serpent of ShangriLa
by SilvorMoon
Summary: A stranger washes up on the shores of Academy Island, and his story just doesn't sit right with Ra's top student. It's upto Misawa to unravel the mystery man's secret.
1. The Locket

**Part One: The Locket**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Out on the still ocean, a small speedboat drifted slowly to a stop. Its only passenger, a person whose features were difficult to discern in the thin moonlight, stood perfectly still for a moment, straining to hear any sound at all. There was no noise but the lapping of water against his boat, and the softest of night breezes. He sighed a little, his shoulders slumping with relief.

"Finally threw them off," he said. "Now if only I knew where I was... Not that knowing that would help much unless I was close to shore." Even in the darkness, he could see that the small boat's fuel gauge was nearly at empty.

He stared out across the featureless ocean, and then up at the clear night sky. There was nothing that could tell him which way to go next. Still, he had to go somewhere, so he started the engine and began cutting across the waves one more. Luck was with him, and in a few minutes he became aware of a bright light on the edge of the horizon that blinked too slowly and regularly to be a star. It was a lighthouse, which meant land was close by. There was only one place he knew that was in this area: the island where the famous Duel Academia stood. The man sped up, thinking only of the chance of reaching solid ground and safety from his pursuers. The little boat moved swiftly across the water, but a few hundred yards from shore, the engine sputtered and died, and the man swore as his ride slowed and finally stopped. The island was tantalizingly close, but his boat obviously wouldn't move another inch closer unless he wanted to wait and hope that the tides would sweep them in. He wasn't in any mood to chance that. His hand went to his throat, reaching for a pendant that hung on a chain around his neck. It was a large metal locket held shut with three latches, showing nothing that would reveal what the object inside was, beyond its general size and shape. He stared at it a moment before taking it off and hanging it off a hook on the side of the ship which would have ordinarily been used to tie it to a mooring. Satisfied that the locket was safe, he took a deep breath and leaped overboard.

He disappeared underwater for a moment, but in the next instant, he bobbed back up to the surface. He paddled over to the side of the boat and unhooked his locket, and then turned his back on the craft to let it fend for itself. Holding the locket above the waves with one hand, he began swimming laboriously towards the island.

* * *

There was a knock on Manjoume's door. Wondering who would be bothering him at this time of night, Manjoume looked up from the gaming magazine he'd been reading and looked up, wondering who was out there who would be knocking. The only people who ever came in here were Juudai and his followers (it had never occurred to Manjoume that lately he'd followed Juudai around almost as much as Shou and Kenzan did), and they never knocked. He wondered if it was some new emergency, and whether he could get away with hiding under the bed until it went away.

"Manjoume, are you there?" called a feminine voice.

"Asuka!" he exclaimed. He leaped up, pausing only long enough to smooth his clothing and run a hand through his hair before answering the door. "You wanted to see me?"

"Oh, you are home! I was afraid you might have gone out somewhere," said Asuka. "I was just going to ask if you wanted to come with me down to the cliff to see the stars."

"What?" he said blankly, uncertain he'd heard right, and then he said, "Yes! Of course! Absolutely!" because you just didn't pass up chances like that.

"The others are going to be there, too," said Asuka quickly. "It was Misawa's idea first. There's going to be a meteor shower tonight, and he's invited us all to see it."

"Oh," said Manjoume, disappointed.

"You really ought to come," Asuka persisted. "Misawa says they're unusual this time of year. It's a special event. You shouldn't be the only one left out."

Manjoume did some mental calculations and decided that even if Asuka wasn't planning this as a romantic outing, it still would be safest not to leave her unsupervised. He wasn't the only one who had noticed Asuka's charms, after all, and it didn't hurt to keep an eye on the competition. You just didn't leave a girl sitting out under a romantic starlit sky and expect that nobody would even think of making a move on her.

"Sure, I'll come," he said. "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

They went out. It was a pleasant night, warm and mild, with just a hint of a breeze to keep things from being stuffy. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and only a slight silvery sliver of a moon. Better weather for stargazing couldn't have been asked for. Manjoume followed quietly, wondering how one went about finding out when meteor showers happened, and whether or not Asuka could be persuaded to come out at night and sit by the ocean with him if _he_ were the one who invited her out. He suspected she wouldn't. Misawa had the air of someone you believed when he said there were going to be meteor showers or comets or lunar eclipses or any of that kind of thing. Manjoume didn't have that kind of scientific authority going for him.

There was a merry gathering waiting for them when they reached the cliffs. Juudai was already there with his two sidekicks, though Kenzan was giving off the distinct impression of one who had only agreed to come because everyone else was going to be there - after all, he was less interested in stars and more interested in things that had been in the ground for a few million years. He seemed to be delivering a sulky discourse on how the dinosaurs had all been wiped out by a falling space rock, and he didn't see why he needed to look at more of them. Misawa sat a short distance away, fiddling with a telescope mounted on a tripod. It looked nice, and also expensive, and Manjoume wondered if it belonged to Misawa himself or if he'd borrowed it from the school somehow. Fubuki was sitting on a blanket with Junko and Momoe, one on either side with a arm around each of them. Their attention seemed to be less on the cosmic phenomenon going on above them and more on Fubuki as he told them in his curiously platonic way that the stars in the sky had nothing on the stars in their eyes.

"Quit flirting," Asuka told him, with the tired air one might use to swat away a fly that continued returning to the same spot.

"I'm not flirting!" Fubuki protested. "I'm just telling the honest truth."

"Let's go sit over there," said Asuka to Manjoume. They moved over to the area furthest from Fubuki and closest to Misawa and his telescope, and in a stroke of gallantry, Manjoume shed his jacket and spread it out on the grass so Asuka wouldn't have to sit on the damp earth. She took the gesture as her due and offered no more than a small smile as she took her place. Manjoume sat down next to her at a careful distance - not so close that she might feel crowded, but still close enough that there was a chance that they might carelessly and accidentally brush against each other.

"Keep your eyes looking in that direction," Misawa advised, indicating a patch of sky out over the ocean. "If we see any meteors, that's where they are most likely to be."

Everyone kept their eyes obediently trained towards the sky, awaiting the ephemeral flashes of meteors. Misawa finished adjusting his telescope and began allowing people to take turns looking through it. Manjoume tried not to yawn as he watched everyone else take a turn. The stars were not very interesting. Seeing Asuka lean over to get a better view through the telescope _had_ been interesting, but he didn't dare stare at her for more than a moment. That was the kind of thing that got a guy in trouble. Instead, he looked out at the rippling ocean and let his mind wander. Once in a while, he would catch a flash of movement as the meteors flared by, but he wasn't really looking for them.

He did, however, see the person floundering around in the water.

"Hey, look at that!" he exclaimed.

"I know, they're beautiful, aren't they?" said Junko.

"No, not the stars," Manjoume snapped. "I mean that down there in the ocean. What is it?"

Kenzan stared out over the waves. "I can't see. A dolphinsaurus?"

"That's not a dolphin - it's a guy," said Juudai. "I wonder what he's doing down there?"

Manjoume crept closer to the edge of the cliff so he could see better. The mysterious swimmer was clinging, fully clothed, to a large rock. From time to time, a crashing wave would submerge him, and it was a question how much longer he would stay there, because he was only hanging on with one hand.

"Drowning," Manjoume answered succinctly.

Shou peeped over the edge as well. "Maybe we should do something about that?"

"I think there's a rope in the tool shed," Juudai offered.

"I'll get it!" Kenzan offered. He hurried away toward the Red dorm, and returned moments later carrying a coil of rope.

"Hope this is enough," he said.

Juudai nodded his approval. He leaned over the edge of the cliff and bellowed, "Hang on, guy - we're coming for you!"

The man on the rocks waved weakly. The rest of the group hurried down to the rocky ledge closer to the water - still too high to be climbed up to from sea-level, but close enough that they could toss the rope down to the forlorn swimmer.

"Just hang on!" Kenzan called. "We'll have you outta there in no time!"

The man caught the rope and clung to it weakly; it appeared his strength was just about exhausted. The students on the other end of the rope began to haul, and were able to slowly pull him close enough to the cliffside that he could help them by digging his feet against the rocks to climb a bit. At last he was on solid ground, panting and dripping. Everyone stood respectfully aside, except for Fubuki, who had dragged along the blanket he'd been sitting on. He set it around the man's shoulders to help ease the chill from being in the water. Even though it was summer, the water still got cold at night, and the man was shivering slightly.

"Thank you," he said. "I thought I was a goner for a while there."

"What were you doing down there?" asked Fubuki. "That's not the best place for a midnight swim."

"Trust me, I wouldn't have gone swimming if I could help it," the man replied. "I was out on a boat, when I ran out of gas. I saw this island in the distance and thought I could swim for it. I was aiming for the beach, but the current kept pushing me away, and I had to grab onto that rock just to keep from being swept out to sea. Tell me, is this Academy Island?"

"It sure is!" said Juudai cheerfully. "Are you going to join the school here? You look kinda old for it, but that's okay!"

The stranger laughed. He had a pleasant laugh with a hint of self-deprecation in it, as if he thought his being "too old" was just as funny as Juudai's tactless outburst.

"No, I'm not here to continue my education," he said. "To tell the truth, I wasn't planning to come out this way, but I was... forced."

"Nothing new about that," Manjoume deadpanned. "People force us to go to school too."

"That's not quite what I meant," the man replied, with a tolerant chuckle. "The fact of the matter is, there are people who are chasing me. I headed out to sea hoping to leave them behind, and it's pure good luck I passed so close to your island. By the way, you're probably wanting to know my name. It's Hatori. Hatori Uono."

The students introduced themselves, and he listened as if filing all their names away for future reference.

"So, who are you running away from?" Juudai asked, when the introductions are finished.

"Juudai! He might not want to tell people that," Asuka scolded. "Don't ask personal questions."

"Hey, he brought it up!" said Juudai.

"It's quite all right," Hatori said. "The fact of the matter is, I've been trying for days to escape a group of thieves trying to steal my rare card." He tapped the locket he was wearing significantly.

"Ooh, a rare card? Can we see it?" asked Shou, pushing forward to try to get a better view.

"Not now," Hatori replied. "It would be better if no one saw it just yet - I really shouldn't have mentioned it at all, but I think I can trust you, since you were good enough to rescue me and all. But tell me, do you think you could put me in touch with... let me see, the principal's name is Same... it's on the tip of my tongue..."

"Sameshima," Misawa supplied. "I can take you to him. I know where his room is."

"How do _you_ know where his room is?" asked Kenzan.

"I was working on an independent study project for Professor Chronos's class, and Principal Sameshima loaned me a book from his private collection," Misawa answered.

Juudai blinked. "You actually _asked_ for more homework?"

"You say that as if it's a bad thing," answered Misawa primly. He turned his attention to Hatroi. "Be that as it may, I would be pleased to guide you."

"Thank you," Hatori replied. "And thank all of you for helping me. Perhaps we will see each other again soon, if all goes well for me."

The students said goodbye to their new acquaintance - all but Misawa, who strolled along next to the newcomer, feeling a small sense of pride at having a job to do. Covertly, he eyed the man, sizing him up. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties, average to attractive, without being notably tall or short or fat or thin or muscular. Not at all the sort of person one would pick out in a crowd. It was impossible to guess what color his eyes were in the dark, though his hair appeared to be some dark color. Or perhaps it only looked dark because it was wet. His clothes, from what Misawa could see beneath the blanket, were apparently fairly new and well-cared for but nothing that would attract attention. His face was pleasant and intelligent - the sort of person you would feel confident in asking for directions.

_Perfectly ordinary,_ Misawa mused, _as far as men fished out of the ocean go. Wholesome as homemade soup. Except for being chased by thieves, of course. I'd give a lot to have a look at that rare card of his..._

They reached the principal's quarters, and Misawa marched up to the front door and knocked loudly, wondering if Sameshima was still awake this time of night. It was very late by the standards of people who were expected to get up and go to class in the morning, but he knew the teachers would stay up until all hours grading papers or making lesson plans. He endured a moment of uncertain silence after the knock, to see what would happen, and the knocked again. He was just about to decide that the principal was either not in or sound asleep already, when the door was opened by Sameshima himself in a tattered plaid bathrobe.

"What's all this about?" he exclaimed, and then looked at the guests on his doorstep. "Ah, Mr. Misawa! What brings you out here this time of night?"

"Sorry to disturb you, Principal Sameshima," said Misawa politely, "but we found this gentleman washed up on the rocks near the Osiris Red dorms, and he seems to need your help."

Sameshima looked Hatori over. "Well, he certainly looks as if he could use help of some sort," he said. "What's your name, young man, and what can I do for you? No, don't try to explain it all out here. Come in and have a seat."

"I'll get your furniture wet," Hatori protested, but he allowed himself to be ushered inside. Misawa hesitated a moment, but no one told him he should leave, so he tagged along after the two of them and stationed himself in an out-of-the-way spot where he wouldn't attract too much attention. He'd only been in the principal's quarters once before, and then only briefly, so he took a moment to take in his surroundings while the other two were getting situated. It looked, he thought, like a suitable place for a tea ceremony. The principal always had been a traditional sort.

"You look like you could use a hot drink," said Sameshima. "Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee?"

"No, thank you, I am quite warm now. One of your students was kind enough to loan me a blanket," Hatori replied. "No, all I needed was to ask a small favor of you."

"Very well, then. Explain the nature of this favor," said Sameshima.

"All I want is permission to stay here a few days - well, hide here, really," Hatori replied. "I'm carrying on my person a supremely rare card, the Jade Serpent of Shangri-La. It's one of a kind and absolutely priceless. There are collectors who would do anything to have it, and lately some less-than-scrupulous characters have been pursuing me attempting to acquire it from me, by force if necessary. Obviously I wouldn't part with it for anything, but... I'm a little attached to all my body parts, and I don't feel like risking them any more than I have to. I was hoping you would consent to let me stay here until they give up looking for me."

Sameshima looked thoughtful. "I don't know... I don't want to get involved in anything that would put my students at any unnecessary risk..."

"No risk at all," Hatori assured him quickly. "At the moment, no one knows where I am, so there's no danger of my leading someone here. If anyone does turn up, I promise I'll leave immediately. I just know this place is secluded and has very little contact with the rest of the world, so I'll be safer here than in most places. I promise I won't be a bother. I'm sure I can make myself useful here. I've won a few duels in my day - perhaps I could be of assistance to the teachers in some way?"

"Hmm..." said Sameshima thoughtfully. "Well, I'm sure we could use the help... We're a little shorthanded since we, ah, lost Professor Daitokuji. So if you're sure there is no risk, I'm sure we can make a place for you. Do you mind taking a place in one of the dorms?"

"Not at all," Hatori replied. "Anything you have to offer would be wonderful."

"In that case, I think there are some rooms open in the Obelisk Blue dorm," Sameshima replied. "So... The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La, you say? I can't say I've ever heard of that card."

"Few people have. As I said, it's one of a kind," Hatori replied. "It's an early prototype card that was never intended to be released to the public. There was even some talk of destroying it, but Pegasus changed his mind at the last minute and decided it should be preserved as a collector's item instead. I won it at a private auction, and wound up trading just about everything I had for it. It was worth it, though." He stroked his locket gently. "I've never risked playing it in a public tournament, so only the most avid collectors and researchers, and those who worked very closely with Pegasus in the early days of Industrial Illusions, know it exists at all."

"I see," said Sameshima. "I wouldn't mind having a look at this card, myself."

Hatori's hand closed over the locket. "I'm afraid I must respectfully decline, for now. You understand it's not my habit to go showing it off to anyone who asks. Something so rare has to be kept safe, you understand."

"Well, then I respect your position," Sameshima replied. "If you will give me a moment to get in touch with Professor Chronos, I will have him assign you a room in the Obelisk Blue dorm and see to it that you are provided with a school uniform. Would you like me to introduce you to the student body - as, say, a teacher's aide - or would you prefer to just blend into the background?"

"A formal introduction will be fine," said Hatori. "If no one says anything, I will appear to be a mystery. People will talk about me less if I'm just a boring and easily explained teacher- type."

Sameshima chuckled. "Very well. By the way, I never did get your name."

"Hatori Uono, at your service," he replied. "And I thank you very much for your generosity."

"No problem at all," Sameshima replied. "And if you'll excuse me a moment, I'll call Professor Chronos and let him know you're on your way over so he can unlock the front gate for you."

He got up and left the room, leaving Misawa alone with Hatori.

"Quite the exciting life you must live," Misawa commented.

"It is, at times," Hatori agreed. "One of these days, I should write a book... but I'd have to change my name and go live in the Tibetan mountains afterwards, because everyone would be looking for me after that."

"Is that card of yours really so spectacular, then?" Misawa asked.

Hatori chuckled. "Well, there's more to it than that. You're probably too young to understand..."

Misawa bristled slightly at being told there was anything he was "too young" to understand, especially from someone who was probably not much more than ten years his senior, if that. He was saved from having to find some polite reply by the reappearance of Principal Sameshima.

"It's all settled," he said. "Mr. Misawa, could I trouble you to walk Mr. Uono as far as the gates? Professor Chronos said he'll meet him there."

What could Misawa say? It was a reasonable request, since Hatori obviously wouldn't know how to get to the dorm without help, and Sameshima couldn't be expected to guide him around even if he hadn't been in his bathrobe and slippers at the moment. It wasn't that long a walk, really. The weather was clear and calm. It would be no chore at all to walk from here to Obelisk Blue's gates. Misawa was just suffering a sudden disinclination to spend any more time with this slightly soggy stranger.

_You volunteered for this,_ he told himself sternly. _It will only take five minutes. Just do it and get it over with._

"Certainly, Principal Sameshima," he said, his voice carefully neutral. "It would be my pleasure."

So, with a feeling of reluctance, he led Hatori back out into the world and guided him down the path to the most exclusive dorm on campus. The more he walked, the more annoyed he felt. Why did this character get special treatment? He had just swept up out of nowhere, and he got welcomed with open arms. Misawa had scored among the best students in school for about two years, now, and he still hadn't gotten a promotion to the Blue dorm, so why should this nobody just get to waltz in? He told himself he was being unfair, and that it was only because there were empty rooms available there, but it didn't make him feel much better.

"He seems like a nice fellow," Hatori commented. "Kind to his students, I'm sure."

"Quite," Misawa said.

"That's good to hear. I'm not a fan of strict discipline myself. I feel better knowing he gives people second chances. It's good to give someone the benefit of the doubt, don't you think?"

"I suppose so," Misawa agreed carefully, unsure where this conversation was leading.

"Quite right," said Hatori, and chuckled softly. "Everyone should get the benefit of the doubt..."

They reached the gates and found Chronos standing there, looking sleepy and oddly washed-out without his usual makeup, with his hair in disarray and his skinny legs poking out from beneath a silly-looking frilly nightgown. Misawa tried not to make a face; he respected Chronos and knew he was a fine teacher and duelist and a good man withal, but there were some things he just didn't want to see.

"Here we are," said Misawa. "Professor Chronos, this is the newcomer, Hatori Uono. Mr. Uono, this is the head of the Obelisk Blue dorm, Professor Chronos."

"An honor," Hatori said with a bow. He didn't show any signs of being particularly discomfitted by Chronos's appearance.

"Right this way, Signore Uono," said Chronos through a yawn. He was apparently not awake enough to want to observe formalities.

Misawa let the two of them go without bothering with goodbyes. He returned to his own dorm in a thoughtful mood. He found Shou sitting on the front steps of the Ra dorm waiting for him.

"So did you see it?" he asked eagerly.

"See what?" asked Misawa, distracted by his thoughts.

"The _card_," said Shou. "Did you see it? Did he say anything about it? I wish I had been there!"

"You didn't miss anything," Misawa assured him. "He wouldn't show it to anyone, not even Principal Sameshima. The most he would do is say it was an early prototype card he bought at an auction, and it's called The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La."

"The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La," Shou repeated dreamily. "It sounds really strong! What I wouldn't give to get a peek at it!"

"Well, maybe if you're lucky, you'll see it later," said Misawa impatiently. He hadn't heard of that card an hour ago and already he was tired of it. "He's going to be staying on the island for a while acting as a teacher's aide, so you'll have plenty of chances to persuade him."

"Oh, wow!" said Shou eagerly. "I'll bet if we try really hard, we can talk him into it!"

"Knock yourself out," Misawa retorted, with unusual bluntness. "I'm tired now, and I want to go to bed."

"But wait! You can't do that!" Shou protested.

Misawa fixed him with a quelling look. "Listen, I know you're curious about this Hatori Uono and his rare card, but I've heard all I want to hear about him for one night and I don't feel like talking about him anymore."

"It's not that," said Shou. "I just meant, shouldn't you get your telescope back first?"

Misawa's face turned a bright red that was visible even in the dark.

"Right," he said. "I knew that."

* * *

The next morning, the first class of the day was postponed in favor of a school assembly. Most of the students were in a good mood because of this, and chattered happily among themselves as they waited for whatever the announcement was. These things generally tended to be interesting, whatever they were - not necessarily good, but interesting.

"Do you think we're going to have another tournament?" asked Fubuki.

"Nah, it's just that guy again," Juudai answered knowledgeably. He'd gotten the news from Shou over breakfast. "They're going to give him a job so he can stay here a while."

"What does he need a job for?" Manjoume muttered. "If he's such a hotshot duelist, he ought to be able to get by without our help."

"Perhaps you're just jealous of the attention he's getting?" Asuka suggested sweetly.

Manjoume blushed brilliantly and looked down at the floor.

He was saved from having to think of a retort by the arrival of Sameshima and Hatori. Sameshima took up a microphone and addressed his students.

"You will all be glad to know that I won't be keeping you from your classes very long," he said with a chuckle. "I just wanted to introduce you all to the newest member of our staff. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm Duel Academia welcome to our new student aide, Mr. Hatori Uono!"

The students applauded, and Hatori bowed politely. He looked much better now that he was clean and dry and dressed in a proper uniform. His hair, dry and brushed, was auburn, and his eyes shone a pale green. He managed to look rather dashing in his sleek white-and-blue jacket.

"Thank you very much for your warm welcome," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting to know each and every one of you during my stay here. I'm sure we all have much to learn from each other." He bowed to them all, and his locket dangled freely, twisting and flashing on its chain for a moment until he straightened again.

"Mr. Uono will be assisting your professors and monitoring study hall from now on," said Principal Sameshima, "so you all will be meeting him again very soon. Treat him with the same respect you would give any of your other teachers."

There was an agreeable murmur from the students. Considering that the other teachers in question included a vice-principal who thought he was a French general and a man who ran around with a paper bag over his head claiming to be a superhero while dishing out curry, this was not a particularly difficult request.

"And now, since I'm sure you're all aching to return to your classes, I'll let you go," the principal said. "Enjoy the rest of your day!"

The students rose up in chattering waves and headed for the door so they could return to their classes. A few people attempted to get closer to Hatori, but he somehow eluded them and slipped out of the room behind Principal Sameshima.

"So I guess now that guy's going to be around for a while," said Juudai. "Huh, a teacher's aide. I don't think we've had one of those here before. Is that anything like lemonade?"

Manjoume rolled his eyes. "Don't be such an idiot!"

"I was making a joke! Jeez!" Juudai protested.

"Yeah, well, if you're making jokes like that, you've been hanging around _him_ too long," Manjoume retorted, jerking his thumb at Kenzan.

Juudai blinked. "Why's that?"

"Because that joke has been around since dinosaurs walked the earth!"

There ensued a scuffle as Kenzan took offense both to the insult against his favorite person and the slight against his beloved dinosaurs. Misawa watched them for a moment - it wasn't every day you saw Manjoume get into a fistfight, and it was likely this one wouldn't last long - before turning away with a sigh.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Asuka said to him.

"I'm not certain I know what I think myself," admitted Misawa. "There's something about that person that doesn't sit well with me, but I can't put my finger on what it is."

"It's probably just because he's new and different," said Asuka soothingly. "Lately, whenever someone new and unusual pops up, it's meant nothing but trouble."

Misawa smiled a little. "Your brother was new and unusual when he first turned up."

"That proves my point," said Asuka, cuffing Fubuki lightly on the shoulder. Fubuki just grinned at her as if he'd been paid a compliment.

"Well, maybe so," Misawa agreed. "Perhaps it was only staying up so late that made me irritable with him. He does seem pleasant enough. I suppose I'll have to get used to him, at any rate - as dull as things have been around here lately, compared to how things usually are, he'll be all anyone can talk about for days."

"Well, if you would rather talk about dueling, maybe we could meet at the arena later and have a quick game," Asuka offered. "To tell the truth, I'm not all that fascinated by him either."

"How come you offer to duel him and not me?" Manjoume protested.

"Fine, you can play the winner," she said, "but you know, jealousy isn't an attractive quality in you."

Manjoume looked sullen. "I'm not jealous. I just don't care about that guy and his rare card either. I'll bet my Ojamas could take it out, whatever it is."

Misawa half-listened to their conversation as he made his way back to class. He was in a slightly better mood, now that he had a good duel or two to look forward to. Asuka was an eminently desirable opponent, and he wouldn't mind facing off with Manjoume again, either. He liked to think their last duel had been inconclusive for one reason and another, so facing him if he won against Asuka would be good entertainment. A good duel tended to make everything look better. Still...

_It's not just that I was tired last night. I wasn't. I'm used to keeping late hours studying. And it's not that I'm jealous of the attention he's getting. It's not even that he talked down to me. Could it be only that he was accepted here so easily? That's not so strange - he has a charming manner about him, and his story makes sense as far as it goes. I've definitely heard stranger stories since I came to this island. Still, something isn't clicking..._

He paid less than his usual amount of attention in class that day. Down at the front of the room, Chronos was beginning a lecture on the advantages and disadvantages of flip-effect monsters and how to best utilize them, but he could have been lecturing on little green men from Mars for all Misawa knew. He sat in the back of the room and doodled in his notebook, and never raised his hand when Chronos called out a question. No one seemed to notice that he was more out of it than usual, and somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered if this was how Juudai managed to get through all of his classes without doing anything. When class was over, he left without his usual good spirits, thinking only that he still had three more classes to get through.

Gym class, at least, didn't require a lot of his mental energy - Miss Ayukawa had them doing stretches and running laps, leaving him nothing more to worry about than to make sure he didn't run over anyone or vice versa. He kept to the end of the pack, partly because he was preoccupied, and partly because he was more studious than athletic and running laps was one thing he couldn't strategize his way through.

After that came card design with Professor Kabayama. Today was art day, and Misawa, who had always been a little self-conscious that he was in the house taught by the professor who oversaw the drawing lessons when he wasn't much of an artist, found himself filling his paper with drawings of green snakes. He shook his head at himself and decided he definitely needed to find out more about this Jade Serpent of whatever-it-was.

The last class of the day would have, at one point, been taught by Daitokuji, but since he wasn't around anymore and nobody else wanted his job, the final class had been reassigned as a study hall. Nobody really wanted that job either, so the other teachers and Vice- Principal Napoleon took turns keeping watch over the students. Probably all the staff was glad to have it permanently assigned to someone so they wouldn't have to give up their free time watching over a bunch of unruly teenagers who didn't appreciate being stuck in a classroom when they had technically fulfilled their educational requirements for the day and just wanted to go outside for a while. Today, however, everyone was sitting quietly and attentively in their seats, as if they were about to hear something of vital importance instead of just having to pretend to do homework for an hour. All eyes were turned towards the classroom door, awaiting the appearance of the stranger.

Three minutes past the hour, Hatori himself appeared, looking faintly ruffled and smiling sheepishly.

"Hello! Sorry, I don't know my way around yet and I got a little lost," he said. "So, ladies and gentlemen, I'm sure you've all heard my name at least once today, but since I'm not really a teacher, you can just call me Hatori. I thought perhaps we might take a few minutes to get acquainted, so if there is anything you would like to ask me, just speak up."

One of the students put his hand up. "Is it true you've got a really rare card with you? Can we see it?"

"Yes, it's true," said Hatori, "however, I won't be showing it around. You must understand that it is invaluable, irreplaceable - I have to keep a close eye on it. It never leaves my side." He patted his locket protectively.

"Aw, c'mon, just one little peek?" someone else begged.

"Not one. All I can tell you is that it's a monster card called The Jade Serpent of Shangri- La."

"Do you ever use it to duel?" asked a boy near the front.

"Not hardly!" Hatori replied. "I can't risk damaging it, and I definitely can't risk using it in public and attracting thieves. I do duel with more ordinary cards, though."

"How good are you?" a boy in blue asked.

Hatori grinned. "Good enough! If I weren't more interesting in collecting cards than in using them, I could go pro. I've had some exciting duels in my days, I'll tell you that!"

"Tell us!" said several voices at once.

"All right, let's see..." Hatori looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, there was the time I was traveling in America and made my way to the lights of Las Vegas..."

Never in Misawa's memory had the class been so quiet and well-behaved during a study period. Hatori had an engaging story-telling style, and of course there was no one in the school who didn't love hearing about a good duel almost as much as they enjoyed having one. It was at least obvious from the tale that he knew a thing or two about how the game was played.

"...and with Gravity Bind on the field, there was nothing in my hand that could attack. Then I drew, and wouldn't you know? I got Monster Reborn, so I used that to summon Jinzo. The Gravity Bind card was destroyed, and I attacked directly and won with only 200 life points left."

The students murmured their appreciation. A few of them began to chatter amongst themselves about the relative merits of the strategies involved and how they would have gone about improving on them. Everyone seemed to have forgotten that they were supposed to be studying, and their "teacher" seemed to be in no hurry to get them back on track. Instead, he continued to regale them with accounts of dramatic duels he had been in or seen, keeping the class under his thrall until the bell rang.

"Well, that's all for today!" said Hatori. "You all be good and do your homework later so I won't get in trouble, all right? I'll see you tomorrow!"

"But you haven't finished the story!" someone protested. "Can't you stay a while longer?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Hatori replied. "They're giving me a tour of the campus today, so I won't get lost next time. I'll finish it tomorrow, don't worry."

Even with this reassurance, a few students still didn't seem to want to leave. Misawa, however, was not one of them. He wormed his way through the crowd toward the relative freedom of the hallway, where he stood and caught his breath for a minute. While he was setting himself in order, Asuka and Manjoume caught up to him.

"There you are," Asuka said. "I thought I'd lost you for a minute."

"Hm?" he said distractedly.

"You know. You said you'd duel me," she reminded him.

"Oh, that," he said. "Look, I'm very sorry, but something's come up. I'm going to go back to my room."

"What's wrong? Are you sick?" asked Asuka worriedly.

"No, I'm not sick," he began, and then realized that he was passing up a good excuse. He amended, "I've just got a splitting headache, so I'm going to go lie down for a while. You two just have your duel and I'll catch up to you some other time. Okay?"

"All right, then," said Asuka, looking a bit puzzled. "Hope you feel better soon."

"I'm sure I will," said Misawa. "I just need a little peace and quiet."

With that, he retreated back to his dorm. He didn't have a headache, of course, but he did have a lot on his mind to work through. The first thing he did when he reached the safety of his dorm was not to lie down and rest, but to sit down at his computer, log onto the 'net, and start looking for information on The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La.

* * *

Manjoume, meanwhile, had nothing more serious on his mind than the happy fact that he got to duel with Asuka, which meant that for the next few minutes, at least, she had to pay attention to him. Granted, he would probably lose, because he didn't think he'd _ever_ won a duel against Asuka without some supernatural help (and the less said about that, the better) but it would be exciting anyway. Just the fact that she was voluntarily spending time with him was good enough.

Their first thought was to use the main dueling arena, as was Asuka's privilege as an Obelisk, but they found that the place was already occupied, so they instead wound their way to a conveniently open place near the Obelisk Blue dorm. They took their positions and activated their Duel Disks.

"Ready?" Asuka inquired.

"Ladies first," answered Manjoume graciously.

As it happened, the duel was intense but brief. Manjoume took an early lead with his VtoZ cards, but a clever deployment of trap cards swept the field clean of them, leaving her room to summon her Cyber Angels and trounce him soundly. Manjoume gave a faint groan as he dropped to his knees and his life points ticked to zero.

"Why didn't you guys do something?" he muttered to the Ojamas, who were flitting around unhelpfully.

"We thought she might get mad at you if you beat her," said Ojama Yellow, "so we decided to keep out of it."

"Besides, she's strong, and we didn't feel like getting blown up again today," added Ojama Green honestly.

"Oh, you guys are worthless," Manjoume muttered.

At any other time, there might have at least been a few odd looks directed his way, seeing as how to most eyes he would appear to be talking to empty air, but no one was paying attention to him. This was mainly because there was only one other person there besides Asuka, and she was talking to him.

"That was a splendid duel!" said Hatori, applauding. "Exactly what I would expect from a top student of Duel Academia. I can think of some ways it could have been done better, but on the whole, very nicely played."

"Do you think you could give me some suggestions, Professor?" Asuka asked.

"Hatori," he corrected gently. "I'm not a professor, remember, just someone passing through who knows a thing or two about dueling."

"Well, I'll take advice from anyone who can help me improve my dueling," said Asuka. "What would you suggest?"

Manjoume watched in mute horror as Asuka fell into deep and serious conversation with the good-looking newcomer.

"Hey, what about me?" he protested. "I'm the one who lost - he should be giving _me_ advice."

"You didn't ask," Asuka pointed out.

"That's quite all right," said Hitori "He is correct - if I'm going to be making myself useful here, I should try to help everyone equally." Turning to Manjoume, he said, "The first thing I would do with your deck is to do something about those Ojamas. You've managed to make an interesting set of combos out of it, but really, it's much too dependent on luck in the long run. Do yourself a favor and find yourself something a bit more reliable, and then we'll talk in more detail about how to fine-tune it. Right now, though, they're wasting so much space in your deck, there isn't a lot I can do to help you."

"But..." Asuka began hesitantly.

"Don't worry, I haven't forgotten you," he replied. "Now you've got a splendid deck there, but I'd like to see it in its entirety before I start making any suggestions. It probably doesn't need a lot of help, but there are one or two things I want to check. Is there somewhere we could sit down so we could spread your cards out?"

"There's a study area inside," Asuka offered.

"Wait a minute, what are you doing?" asked Manjoume incredulously. "You're really going to take this hack's advice? He's not even a teacher! He's just some random guy who washed up on a rock, and you're listening to him like he's... Seto Kaiba or something!"

"I'm listening to him because I might learn something," said Asuka frostily. "I told you before, jealousy is not attractive, and I don't like hearing you talk this way. Maybe if _you_ learned to take advice, you wouldn't lose so often - and maybe if you learned to treat me like a duelist instead of a helpless little princess, then maybe... oh, never mind. Let's go inside."

She and Hatori made their exit in the direction of the Blue dorm, talking seriously about deck construction, while Manjoume just stood and stared with his pleasant afternoon in ruins. When they were out of sight, he snapped out of his daze. He turned his wrath on a nearby tree and kicked it until his toes ached and the bark had visible scuffs on it.

"Agh! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him!" He realized he was doing more damage to his feet than to the tree than to anything else, and turned away with a snarl.

"You aren't gonna take us out of your deck, are you, Aniki?" asked Ojama Yellow plaintively.

"No," he said. "Not for that idiot or any other stupid hack who comes along. My deck is just fine the way it is, and everybody knows it." More quietly, he added, "And I don't treat her like a helpless princess, and I don't treat her like a stupid school kid who doesn't know how to put a deck together, either. Unlike _some_ people."

With a sigh, he turned and began walking slowly back to his dorm with his head bowed, thinking to himself that he should have just left the man in the ocean.

**To Be Continued...**


	2. The Card

**Part Two: The Card**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Misawa's classmates found him the next morning looking sleepy and somewhat grouchy, but Asuka told them that he hadn't been feeling well yesterday, and that perhaps he was sick, so they all left him alone. He was glad of it. It wasn't that he was feeling sick, though he _was_ tired. He was also uneasy in his mind, and in no particular mood to socialize with his peers. He had stayed up most of the night, attempting to trace some kind of information on this mysterious Jade Serpent card, and he had come up with absolutely nothing. A generic websearch had given him articles about jade, serpents, and Shangri-La, but nothing that combined the three in any relevant fashion. Undaunted, he had tried a variety of other sources: gaming websites, message boards and mailing lists revolving around rare cards, the Industrial Illusions website, everything he could think of. Nothing had given him any clues.

_So much for my first hypthesis,_ he thought gloomily. He was actually a little bit ashamed of himself. His first thought was that the card had been stolen, and Hatori had come here not to hide from thieves, but to hide _a_ thief - namely himself. However, if he had stolen the Jade Serpent card, he had done it so well that he had wiped out all traces of its existence. It was as if the card had never been made at all, as far as he could tell.

_So maybe that's it. Maybe there's nothing in that locket at all. Maybe he's just faking it. That would explain why he refuses to show it to anyone... but that doesn't seem quite right, either, somehow. When he was in the ocean, he was holding the locket out of the water the whole time when his energy would have been better spent holding on to the rock. Why would he risk his life for an empty locket? Unless there's something else in there? But what could he keep in such a small space besides a card?_ Unanswered questions plagued him; there was nothing he hated more than a riddle he couldn't solve. He wondered what it would take to get a look inside that locket...

He got his first real breakthrough on his way to lunch. On his way back to the Ra Yellow dorm (he did eat with Juudai and the rest of the group on occasion, but there were only so many days in a row he could bring himself to subsist on dried sardines) he passed by Hatori and a knot of interested students. Hatori had his arms full of books; he looked as if he'd been carrying something for one of the other teachers when he'd been accosted by interested passers-by.

"C'mon, please?" a boy begged. "I just want one little look!"

"I really don't think so," said Hatori. "I wish I could, but I have to get these books back to Professor Chronos. He'll be displeased with me if I'm late."

"Chronos is always mad about something," said one of the other boys. "Please, Hatori, show us the card! It will only take a second!"

"Now, you know why I can't be showing it off..."

"But you're always talking about it!" said a boy in a blue jacket. "You know you can trust us! Hey, I'll give you a thousand yen if you'll show it to me!"

Hatori laughed. "Well, if you're really that desperate..."

He led the boy into a nearby empty classroom, deftly shutting all the other students out. They gave a collective groan of disappointment as the door closed. One of them tired the doorknob, but found it locked. However, it was only a few seconds before the door opened again, and both parties to the deal stepped back out again, Hatori appearing far more interested in getting his books back to Professor Chronos, and the delighted boy eager to tell his schoolmates all about what he'd seen. Misawa, who had stopped to watch the whole spectacle, edged closer to hear what was being said.

"So he really let you see it?" one boy in the crowd asked.

"He sure did!" the lucky boy answered proudly. "It's a totally wicked card! Four thousand attack points _and_ a special effect. No wonder it never got released; there wouldn't be any stopping a card like that..."

_So it is real,_ Misawa mused. He felt oddly disappointed that his elaborate theories held no weight. After all that thinking, the man really was just protecting a rare card! Still... _I wouldn't mind having a look at that card myself!_

There were some pros and cons to this idea. As the day went on, several more students gained the privilege of looking at the mysterious card, and soon everyone seemed to know the secret knack of getting Hatori to open up. The trick, it appeared, was to collar him at a moment when there weren't many other people around or where there was a safe hiding spot nearby (asking him during classes was a sure failure) and offer him some incentive. Money seemed to work best - it didn't have to be much - but cards would work too if they were sufficiently rare. He never showed it to more than one person at a time, though there had been at least three students who had persuaded him to give them more than one look.

"Looks like I'm gonna hafta scrounge up some cash," said Juudai. "Too bad I spent most of mine on egg-bread already. Maybe there's some change under the sofa..."

"That's why I always keep some spare change on hand, just in case," Shou answered primly.

Kenzan began going through some pockets. "I have some moneysaurus. Hey, Aniki, do you want me to loan you some?"

Misawa listened without comment. He and the rest of his friends were relaxing outside of the school building, leaning against the stones that lined the front walk. He noticed that Manjoume was being equally silent, making a visible effort to look like he was not listening.

"What about you, Manjoume?" he asked. "Aren't you curious about this rare card?"

"No," said Manjoume sullenly. "I've said it before, and I'll say it again - I don't care about that stupid card and I don't care about him. So there!"

"Easy, boy, easy!" said Juudai, laughing. "Nobody's making you look at it if you don't want to."

"What about you, Asuka?" Misawa persisted. "Are you going to pony up the cash and have a look at the mystery card?"

"I don't need to," she answered quietly. "He's already shown it to me."

Everyone was instantly interested.

"When?" Shou asked. "What did you give him?"

"I didn't give him anything," said Asuka, her voice still soft and steady. "He showed it to me yesterday while we were going over my deck."

"He did _what_?" Manjoume exclaimed bristling. "You didn't say anything about that!"

"You said you weren't interested," she replied.

"Well, I'm interested now!" he said. "He's been telling everyone in the school he can't show that card to anyone without a good reason! Why would he just show it to you without you even asking?"

Asuka colored a little. "He just thought I would be interested, that's all! It's not like he was - was coming on to me or anything. He was just helping me with my deck. I learned a lot from him!"

"Yeah, I'll just bet you did," Manjoume muttered. "I'll bet he told you all kinds of things."

"You stop talking like that right now," said Asuka sharply. "I can't believe you're acting this way. I find it very offensive, and I'm not going to listen to it!"

She got up and stalked away, radiating righteous indignation. Manjoume stared at her retreating form with a look of disbelief.

"What's her problem?" he exclaimed.

"No idea," said Juudai, mercifully oblivious. "Anyway, I'm gonna go see about finding some cash. Anyone want to come help?"

"Count me out," said Manjoume. "I'm not giving anything to that son-of-a..."

"Why don't you walk with me for a while?" Misawa interjected. "I think we have some things to talk about."

"Well, you two have fun," said Juudai cheerfully. He and his two sidekicks headed off in the direction of the Osiris Red dorm. Misawa and Manjoume got up and walked off in the other direction, heading for the relative secrecy of the forest.

"So what did you want to talk about?" said Manjoume, in a "let's get this over with" tone of voice.

"I wanted to talk to you," Misawa replied, "because I'm getting the feeling that you and I are the only people on this island who haven't been completely duped by this Hatori Uono - if that's even his real name."

Manjoume's sullen expression took on a spark of interest. "You think he's up to something?"

"I am almost one hundred percent positive he's up to something," said Misawa. "The problem is, I'm not entirely sure what yet. I'm still trying to dredge up information on that card of his, and so far I've found nothing, which is suspicious in itself. And you notice how he's so secretive about that card when he first shows up, and suddenly he's not worried at all once a bit of money crosses his palm?"

"Yeah, he got over his worries real fast, didn't he?" Manjoume agreed, looking interested. "So you think the card is a fake?"

"I haven't ruled out the possibility yet," answered Misawa. "Or it could be stolen. It could be a pre-release that hasn't hit the shelves yet. It could be exactly what he says it is for all I know. I'm not ready to jump to any conclusions. I am, however, convinced that he is up to something, and I'd like your help figuring out what it is."

"I'm on it," said Manjoume. "You can count on me! Detective Manjoume Thunder has his ways of finding things out!"

"Excellent. I knew you were the right man for the job," said Misawa. "As for me, I've got a few ideas where I want to start investigating next. You do your thing and I'll do mine, and we'll meet in my room tonight and compare notes. How does that sound?"

Manjoume nodded. "No problem. Don't you worry - whatever this faker is up to, he can't hide it from me!"

The two of them shook hands and parted company. Misawa felt pleased with himself. He still didn't know what he was up against, or what he'd do when he found out about it, but it was nice to know he had an ally in his endeavors.

Meanwhile, Manjoume was doing some serious thinking. It was one thing to say he had his ways of finding out things, but another to put them into practice. The fact was, his gift of hearing and seeing monster spirits was useful when he wanted to spy on someone, but only if he could get the cards within close enough range to whoever he wanted them to watch. His Ojamas had developed a pretty fair range during the course of their acquaintance, much more than any of his other monsters seemed to have, on the occasions when they manifested. He didn't really want to speculate why, though a part of him had to admit it probably had to do with their bond with him that let them follow him over long distances even when he left their cards behind, but it made them useful as spies or burglar alarms when the occasion arose. Unfortunately, he couldn't send them out to look for someone; he had to put their cards near the target and let the Ojamas come to him when they saw something. That would be easy if only Manjoume dared to set foot inside the Obelisk dorm...

_Good thing I know somebody who can,_ he thought. There was only one person he knew who had the nerve to break into a teacher's room in the most hallowed of dormitories and had the charm to get away with it, and who also liked Manjoume enough to try it. Manjoume set out to see if he could find Fubuki.

The beach was usually a good spot to go looking for Duel Academia's favorite surfer boy, so Manjoume turned his footsteps in the direction of the ocean and began inspecting the waves. Eventually he heard the sound of a motor and looked up to see Fubuki cruising along on a jetski. He waved as he went by, and Manjoume waved back, beckoning him to come closer. Fubuki obediently turned around and pulled his jetski up onto the beach.

"Hey, Manjoume, what's up?" he said cheerfully.

"I need your help for something," Manjoume replied. "Could you do me a little favor, with no questions asked?"

"I guess so," said Fubuki. "What have you got in mind?"

"All I need is for you to take these," Manjoume replied, holding up the three Ojama cards, "and hide them somewhere in Hatori's room where he won't find them. Can you do that for me?"

"I guess so... but why would you want to do that? Aren't those kind of your best cards? How are you going to duel without them?"

"I'll figure something out," Manjoume replied. "It's only for a day or two. Then I'll need to get them back again. Just trust me on this one, okay?"

"So you need me to get them in and get them out again, too," said Fubuki. "I guess I can do that. Why do you want to put them in there, though? Like, for safekeeping or something?"

"Yeah, that's exactly it," said Manjoume, seizing the excuse. "I want to put them there for safekeeping."

"Why don't you just ask Hatori if he'll put them there for you?"

"Because the fewer people who know where they are, the safer they'll be," Manjoume pointed out reasonably. "I mean, I know I can trust you totally. We're practically brothers, right?"

"Absolutely!" Fubuki agreed. "All right, I understand now! Leave it to me!"

"Good," said Manjoume. He held the cards close to his mouth long enough to whisper, "Watch that guy like a hawk and tell me anything that looks suspicious!" before handing them over to Fubuki.

The cards changed hands with suitable solemnity, and Fubuki carried them over to where he'd stashed his things and tucked them safely into his bag so they would be protected until he could get them back to the Blue dorm. To his way of thinking, it was generally a waste of time to go back inside as long as the weather was fair and the waves were favorable, but when a friend came to you for a favor, you did what you could. He changed swiftly out of his wetsuit, shouldered his bag, and made his way towards the Obelisk Blue dorm.

It occurred to Fubuki that perhaps the best way to accomplish his mission was to go for the direct approach: just knock on Hatori's door and ask to be let in under the pretense of wanting help with his homework or some such thing. This would have been a good and highly effective plan, had it not been for the fact that Hatori himself seemed to be elsewhere. After knocking on the door a few times with no success, he gave up and went back outside again.

_This calls for some strategy,_ he thought to himself. He began walking around the dorm, sizing the matter up. He managed to pick out the window that marked Hatori's room and began trying to figure the best way to get into it. It was on the top floor of the building, on the side that faced the volcano rather than the lake. There were lots of trees over there. Fubuki was almost as good with trees as he was with waves. He picked out a nice tall one with thick branches and began his attempt to scale it. The tree's trunk was so thick that he couldn't even get his arms around it, but he persevered, and finally was able to find enough bumps and grooves in its bark that he managed the slow climb at last, though not without getting a certain amount of sap and grit on his uniform. Ah, well, it wouldn't be the first time.

Once he had climbed sufficiently high enough, he leaped down onto the building, landing carefully to avoid slipping off the steep roof. He teetered a little, found his balance, and began inching, spiderlike, across the tiles, until he was close enough to Hatori's room that he could swing down from the gutter and land on the balcony.

"I could have been a gymnast," said Fubuki, pleased with himself. He dusted off his clothes and straightened his hair (for reasons best known to himself, since there was no one around to see him) and let himself into the room. It didn't take Fubuki long to size the place up. After all, it was just another dorm room, and therefore looked exactly like Fubuki's own room, minus all his personal belongings. The room was, in fact, painfully bare to Fubuki's way of thinking.

"You can't hide anything in here," he muttered.

Nevertheless, he had promised he'd try, so he searched the room and finally found a crevasse between the television screen and the wall that didn't look like it was likely to be bothered. Hiding anything under the furniture was just asking to have it vacuumed up by the cleaning staff, and Manjoume would never forgive Fubuki if he let anything happen to those Ojama cards. Manjoume might occasionally let things happen to them himself, but that was another story. Pleased with his work, Fubuki let himself out of the room, made sure the door was locked behind him, and went on about his day without a further thought as to why his friend would want to hide his favorite cards in someone else's room.

* * *

Manjoume went back to his dorm. He felt oddly unprotected, knowing that his Ojamas were know longer tucked safely in his pocket to pop up and annoy him whenever an opportunity presented itself, and told himself that he was being silly feeling that he was unguarded without the protection of a pack of no-attack-point monsters. They would do more good where they were. In the meantime, he had work of his own to do. He picked out all the Ojama support cards from his deck and put them away with his other spare cards. Then he put his deck, now much thinner, back in his pocket and went off looking for Hatori.

A brief search turned up the man hanging around the card shop, where a gaggle of eager admirers were listening to him recounting more of his famous duels. Manjoume couldn't help but notice that Asuka was there as well, though she didn't seem to be hanging on to his every word as some of the other students were - she just stood there, a little to the side, listening with the same sort of businesslike expression she wore during school lectures.

_Might as well make this look good,_ said Manjoume. He composed his face into what he hoped was a pleasant and eager expression and went bounding up to join the rest of the group.

"Hatori!" he called. "I've been looking for you!"

"Oh, have you?" Hatori replied, breaking off from his story. "Let's see... Manjoume, was it? What can I do for you?"

Manjoume, aware that everyone's eyes were on him, remained determined to forge ahead. "I just wanted to tell you that I thought it over, and I realized, hey, you're right. I really don't need those Ojamas and they're just cluttering up my deck, so I took the worthless things out and put them away."

"Well! That's good to hear," said Hatori, looking pleased. "I'm glad you're taking a step in the right direction."

Manjoume nodded agreeably. "Never let it be said that Manjoume Thunder doesn't know good advice when he hears it! I'm willing to listen to whatever advice you have to give me."

"Then I'll be more than happy to sit down with you and give you a few pointers," Hatori replied. "Just let me finish my story, and I'll be right with you. Now, where was I..."

Hatori went back to his tale-telling, but a few people appeared to have lost interest in him, looking vaguely troubled and watching Manjoume doubtfully. Manjoume pretended not to notice as he wandered to the back of the shop to wait for Hatori. Asuka followed him.

"What was that all about?" she asked him.

He shrugged. "Maybe I just decided to give the guy a chance."

"Please don't say you're doing this because of me," said Asuka. "When I said to stop being jealous of him, I didn't mean you should give up your prize cards just because he told you to!"

"Relax. It's not like I threw them away or anything," Manjoume told her. "I just thought I'd do something a little different for a while, that's all."

Asuka gave him a very hard look.

"Come off it," she said. "Everyone knows those Ojamas are your trump cards. You hardly ever lose with them. You honestly can't believe you're better off without them in your deck, so don't even try to convince me of it."

"It never hurts to learn some new tricks," said Manjoume. "It's all about being open- minded and learning new things, right? That's why you started hanging out with this joker, right?" He turned to meet her gaze. "Look, it's not about you, okay? I just have something I want to find out, so I've gotta play along for a while. That's all it is."

"You're sure you know what you're doing?" asked Asuka skeptically.

"It's no big deal," he told her. "And anyway, if you think it's a bad idea, maybe you should think about who came up with it first, huh?"

"Manjoume..."

"Look, I've got to go - he's calling for me. Later." He waved and walked off, rather enjoying the shocked expression on her face and wondering if this would wake her up and make her realize the mistake she was making in preferring a not-even-really-a-teacher over him. He did his best to make his expression innocent and agreeable as he approached Hatori.

"So what do _you_ think I ought to use to fill in my deck?" he asked brightly.

"I don't know yet. Let's spread everything out somewhere and I'll see what we can come up with," said Hatori.

Manjoume smiled and nodded, thinking to himself that if the whole dueling bit didn't pan out for him, he really could become a detective.

* * *

That evening, Misawa was still hunched over his computer, staring at the results of his searches. It would be hard to say he'd found what he'd wanted to find, but he'd found what he'd expected to find, and was in the middle of trying to figure out what to do about it when he heard a tapping at his window. He turned to see a pebble bounce off his windowpane. He got up to open the window, and flinched as yet another pebble bounced off his forehead.

"Are you trying to put someone's eye out?" he snapped.

"No," said Manjoume. "I'm trying to get you to open the door. For some reason," he continued, his voice dripping sarcasm, "the people down here have this weird thing about not letting people from other dorms inside."

Misawa sighed. "I'll take care of it."

He went downstairs and opened the door for Manjoume, who walked into the dorm with his usual air of confidence, looking at the other Ra Yellow students as if wondering why the cleaning staff hadn't swept them up by now.

"You know, I've actually never been in here before," he commented as he followed Misawa up the stairs.

"It's a nice place," said Misawa absently, "and the food is about as good as it is in the Obelisk dorm. They just don't make such a big production out of it."

"Is that so? Maybe I should start looking into being promoted."

"You'd look awful in yellow," said Misawa as he unlocked his door. "Come inside and lock the door behind you, and we'll talk."

Manjoume did as he was told, made unusually compliant by the serious of the situation. He noticed as he came in that the area was strewn with papers, printouts, and sketches.

"Are you allowed to write on the walls like this?" he asked.

"They gave up on trying to make me stop. That's the same thing, I suppose," said Misawa.

"Gotcha," said Manjoume. He flopped onto the bed and made himself comfortable. "So I guess you'd like to know how my talk with Mister I've-got-a-rare-card went."

"If he said anything interesting, I would," Misawa replied. He'd sat back down at his desk and was busily putting all his papers back in order.

"Well, he didn't," said Manjoume flatly. "He should have, but he didn't."

Misawa turned to give him a puzzled look. "What do you mean, he should have?"

"I mean, he would have said something interesting if he could have, but he didn't," said Manjoume. "That's the point. He was giving me a hard time yesterday about those Ojamas, telling me to throw them out of my deck. So today I took them out and put them away, and I went back to the guy to see what other _brilliant_ advice he had for me. You want a look? It might be good for a laugh."

Intrigued, Misawa got up and took the deck that Manjoume was offering him. He riffled quickly through the cards before looking sharply back at Manjoume.

"This isn't your deck," he said.

"No duh, genius," said Manjoume. "This is what it looked like after the hack job that guy put it through. I feel like apologizing to my cards for this."

Misawa shook his head incredulously. "This... is the kind of deck the ten-year-old neighborhood champion uses to win against other ten-year-olds."

"Tell me about it," said Manjoume. "You know... there are people who know how to duel, and then there are people who can duel."

"Hm?" Misawa responded, momentarily thrown. "Oh, I see - you mean there are people who know the rules and people who actually have experience. Yes. That's exactly what this looks like." He looked over the cards again, still marveling that anyone would expect Manjoume to work with a deck like this. Someone had weeded out not only the Ojamas that had been the aces of Manjoume's deck, but the Armed Dragons and the VtoZ cards as well. It looked, in fact, a lot like the deck he'd been doing so well with, and a lot more like the one he'd been using, only worse. It was the deck created by someone who thought that more attack points always meant a better monster, and that trap and spell cards were superfluous because obviously it was the monsters who did all the work. It was, in short, the deck of someone who knew the general theory but had not had a lot of experience putting it into practice.

"Kinda makes you wonder where he's getting all these stories about winning duels, doesn't it?" said Manjoume, taking his deck back - or rather, his cards, since the collection could hardly be called a proper deck.

"I think it would be easier to memorize someone else's moves and claim you made them yourself, than to actually win that many duels in that many different playing styles," Misawa replied. "Especially since I did a very thorough Internet search and could find no listings of anyone bearing his name, in or out of the dueling circuit."

"So we've got him nailed!" said Manjoume triumphantly. "All we have to do is tell the teachers he's a big fat faker and then-"

"Not so fast," Misawa interrupted. "We haven't proven anything yet. If we move too quickly, we'll lose all credibility. Think for a minute. What has his story been so far? That he's carrying a card so rare that nobody has ever heard of it, and that he's been keeping a low profile to keep anyone from finding out about it. We'd just look like he was confirming his story."

Manjoume looked disappointed. He held up the handful of cards. "But this..."

"Prove to me he did it and not you," said Misawa. He crossed his arms and looked thoughtful. "We still need something more to make our case airtight - something more than just circumstantial evidence."

"Well, I've still got a watch posted on the guy," Manjoume said. He sounded disappointed that he hadn't gotten more of a reaction. "Sooner or later, he'll say or do something stupid, and then we'll have him."

"Right. We're still in the process of collecting evidence," Misawa replied. "Hopefully we can do it before he's swindled half the school out of all their best cards. There must be something we can do to prove he's a fake... Hmm..."

"Too bad we can't steal that card of his," said Manjoume. "Bet if we could get our hands on that, we could find a mistake or something."

"Maybe we don't have to steal it," Misawa replied. "I'm starting to get an idea."

Manjoume raised an eyebrow. "Feel like cluing me in?"

"Well, think for a minute," answered Misawa. "Maybe _we_ can't prove the card is a fake... but we _do_ know people who can."

* * *

Misawa's plan was simple. The next day he made it a point to arrive early for class, something he often did anyway so he could review his notes and ready himself for the next lesson, so no one saw anything about him showing up ahead of schedule. However, his motive today was not to get a jump on his schoolwork, but to catch up with Hatori if he could. Luck was with him: the so-called teacher's aide had taken to arriving a few minutes early, himself, to help the other professors set up their materials for the classes. He was already there when Misawa arrived, setting up a video projector. There was no one else in the room.

"Good morning, Hatori," he said politely. "How are you today?"

"Just fine, thank you... Misawa, isn't it? Everything is just fine," Hatori replied. "Just trying to get this projector working. I swear it was made back in the stone ages. How are you?"

"Well enough, thank you," Misawa answered. "I just came early to do a little studying. Though... since I'm here..." He made a show of looking around to make sure there was no one else around, as if he thought there might be someone hiding under the desks. "I was wondering... it seems I'm the only one left in school who hasn't seen that legendary card of yours. Do you think it would be all right if you let me have a quick look?"

"Right before class? Not a good idea," said Hatori. "Someone could just walk through the door any minute, and I can't really lock the door. Professor Chronos wouldn't like that at all."

"Bring it over here," Misawa suggested. "You can show it to me under the desk. Pretend you're going over my homework with me." He didn't bother to mention that anyone would be suspicious if they saw Miswa accepting help with his homework.

Hatori took the bait. He ambled over to Misawa's side and bent over the desktop as if interested in what was written in Misawa's notebook (which wasn't even the actual homework assignment, not that it mattered). To Misawa, he said almost inaudibly, "You realize that I don't show this to people for free, yes?"

In reply, Misawa fished out a few bills that he had made sure to have with him for just such an occasion, and proffered them silently to Hatori.

"That should do it." He opened the lid of his locket, and despite Misawa's conviction that the card had to be a fake, he still felt a flicker of anticipation. The locket came open, and a card fell into Hatori's hand. He held it out so Misawa could get a good look at it.

_So this is what everyone in the school is going so crazy to see,_ Misawa thought, leaning forward to get a better look. The scene showed a temple of golden-colored stone, with a large green serpent with wicked emerald eyes crawling over its front, weaving in and out of columns. As far as the art went, he couldn't see any reason to imagine it was not an Industrial Illusions production - indeed, he'd seen some official cards that didn't have art so detailed.

"Do you think it would be all right if I held it for a moment?" Misawa asked.

"Well..."

"I'll pay extra!"

"Hm. Well, I guess you can't take it anywhere. Just don't damage it, all right?"

He handed the card over to Misawa, who thought, _That was easy._

Misawa turned the card over in his hands a few times, studying it closely from all angles. He took particular care to memorize the statistics and effects of the card before handing it back to its owner.

"A beautiful card," said Misawa. "You're lucky to have it."

"Indeed," Hitori replied, slipping it back into its locket. "I've gone through a lot of trouble to get it, but it's always been worth it."

Misawa nodded and smiled agreeably. Now that he had seen the card for himself (and, he thought a bit sadly, given up most of his pocket money to do it) he wanted Hitori to go away so he could get to work making notes. Misawa had a good memory, but he couldn't trust himself not to forget a crucial detail in a situation like this. Fortunately, a few girls in blue uniforms chose that moment to arrive, and Hatori turned his attention to greeting them. Misawa took out a sheet of paper and began jotting down all the details of the mystery card. He even made a quick sketch of the picture, as well as he could reproduce it. Once again he was frustrated by his general lack of artistic skills, but he managed to recreate it well enough to keep his memory fresh. He chewed the end of his pencil, trying to remember if there was anything else he might have missed. As he raised his eyes to stare at the ceiling in thought, he noticed Hatori looking at him speculatively.

_Uh-oh. Does he suspect something?_

Misawa immediately brushed the thought off as paranoid, and then changed his mind and decided he couldn't be _too_ paranoid when dealing with a suspected con-man. He did his best to keep his expression thoughtful and slightly puzzled.

"Something on your mind, Mr. Misawa?" Hatori asked.

"Yes, I was just trying to remember, when you flip-summon a monster, do you have to summon it in defense or attack mode? Or does it matter?"

It was a foolish question, he knew, and anyone who had passed the school entry exams should have known the answer, but it seemed to appease Hatori, who rattled off an answer without seeming to realize that Misawa wasn't paying attention to him.

_That was a close one,_ Misawa thought. He flipped his notebook to another page, just in case, one with an innocuous list of trap cards on it that he'd been using for a previous lesson. It would be useless today, but he doubted anyone was going to pay attention to that. He stared at it as if attempting to memorize it, but really he was thinking about much more interesting things. It was unusual for Misawa to be anxious for class to be over, but today was proving the exception to the rule.

He had meant to wait until the evening to put the second part of his plan into effect, but two things changed his mind. One was that he was simply impatient to have his hunch confirmed. The other was that he'd decided that it would be easier to get the answers he wanted if he made the call during the midday hours. As soon as his morning classes were over, he pretended to follow his fellow students back to the lunch hall, but instead changed direction at the last minute and retreated to his room. He fished out his notebook and opened it to his page of notes. Then he turned on his computerized address book and retrieved a phone number.

"I hope he doesn't get in trouble over this," he murmured as he placed the call.

The phone rang a few times, and then was answered by a familiar voice, saying, "Hello?"

"Hello, Hayato. This is Misawa."

"Hey! I haven't heard from you in forever!" said Hayato. "Listen, it's great to hear from you, but I'm kind of at work right now..."

"This is a work-related issue," Misawa replied. "I need to know about a card called The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La."

"Sorry. Never heard of that one," Hayato replied.

"I thought so," Misawa replied. "There's a man on this island who washed up out of nowhere, claiming to have a rare card called The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La, and I can't find any information on it anywhere. He claims it's an early prototype card that was rejected. I have a strong feeling it's a forgery. Meanwhile he's charging everyone in the Academy a small fortune just for a quick look at it."

"Yeah, that's suspicious, all right," Hayato agreed. "Well, I bet I could check the company records for you. I'm allowed to do that so I don't make a card that's already been made before by accident."

"That's exactly what I was hoping you'd do," Misawa replied. "Let me give you the stats for it. It's The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La, effect monster, level ten, Earth attribute, Reptile type, 4000 attack points..."

He finished reading off all the information he'd taken down, and then had Hayato read it all back to him to make certain all of it was correct.

"That sounds like you've got it," said Misawa. "Just get back to me as soon as you can, all right?"

"Don't worry," said Hayato. "You can count on me! I'll get to the bottom of this if I have to take it to Mr. Pegasus himself."

"I trust you," Misawa replied. "And it was very good to hear your voice again. Next time I'll have to remember to call you when you're not at work, and we have time to talk properly... but now I need to get going, or I'll miss lunch entirely."

"Well, I wouldn't want to make you do that! I'll catch you later. Say hi to the whole gang for me!"

Misawa promised he would do so and thanked Hayato for his help before hanging up. He smiled as he hung up the phone, feeling pleased with himself. It was nice to have friends in high places. Soon he'd have the truth, straight from the most reliable source there was. Misawa liked having the truth about things; it made life so much easier. Privately, he also liked the idea that it would be he who would reveal the truth to the masses and become a hero thereby. It wasn't every day he got to play the hero, and he was definitely looking forward to it.

* * *

"This is boring!"

"You said it. I want to go home."

Ojama Yellow fixed his brothers with a disapproving glare. "You can't give up yet! Our big brother is counting on us!"

"But there's nothing to watch," Ojama Green complained. He waved around at the room, which was still both painfully bare and totally empty of human life. There wasn't so much as a housefly to distract them.

"But he could come home any minute! We've got to pay attention!" Yellow insisted.

"Why bother?" Black retorted. "Even when he comes in, he just does his school papers and goes to bed. I don't even know why we're supposed to be-"

He stopped talking as the door suddenly swung open and Hatori walked in. All three Ojamas dove for cover, forgetting for the moment that Hatori couldn't see them anyway. The young man walked right past them and sat down at his desk, looking thoughtful. After a moment, he opened up the drawer and pulled out a plastic bag stuffed with an assortment of coins, bills, and cards, and then fished out a calculator and a sheet of paper. He began counting up his earnings and listing all the cards he'd collected. Since he didn't seem to be paying attention to anything else, the Ojamas moved in closer to hover over his shoulders.

"Not a bad haul at all, considering it's just kids," Hatori muttered, looking over his figures. "Maybe I should take a break from working the arenas and start working the school system instead. Kids are so gullible."

"That doesn't sound good," Ojama Green said.

"See? What did I tell you!" Yellow replied. "This is why we have to pay attention!"

"Should we go tell Big Brother about this?" asked Black.

"Not yet. Wait until he's done," said Yellow.

Hatori finished sorting his loot and stuffed it all back in the bag again. Then he leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling and running the chain of his locket through his fingers. At length, he seemed to come to a decision, and sat up straight again. He opened his locket and took out the card.

"Well, old buddy," he said to the card, "you've served me well, but I think now that everyone has seen you and paid for the privilege, I've gotten all the use I can out of you. Won't do for you to get too much time in the spotlight. People are already starting to get suspicious of you. So, my friend, we're going to have to part. Goodbye."

And with that, he ripped the card in half.

The Ojamas stared in horror. With their lives tied to their cards, seeing something like that felt like witnessing a murder. Oblivious to their shock, Hatori continued shredding the card until it was nothing more than a pile of confetti. It was difficult to tell it had ever been a card at all. He swept all the pieces up in his hand and opened the window. A breeze was blowing by, tossing the branches of the trees outside. The paper Hatori was writing on fluttered to the floor. Hatori reached out the window and let the handful of shredded paper flutter away on the wind.

"That's that," he said, when the last scrap had drifted off into the forest. "No more evidence. Now to shift the blame."

With that, he put all his things away again and wandered out of the room.

**To Be Continued...**


	3. The Game

**Part Three: The Game**

**By: SilvorMoon**

Manjoume studied his hand, feeling mildly irritated. Having completed his deck-building experiment, he had taken the faulty deck apart and put his favorite cards back into it, but it just wasn't the same. While he _could_ duel without his Ojamas, he didn't particularly care to. It put a crimp in his style. If Juudai hadn't been pestering him intolerably, he never would have agreed to a duel.

"You gonna make your move any time this week?" Juudai teased.

"I'm getting to it! _Some_ people actually _think_ once in a while," snapped Manjoume, but he didn't really mean it. When he was playing with a handicap, he really didn't want Juudai to think too much. "Okay, I play V-Tiger Jet in attack mode and place one card-"

"Big Brother!" shouted a voice in his ear.

Manjoume jumped and nearly dropped his cards. "What?"

"I didn't say anything!" Juudai protested.

"Not you - him!" said Manjoume, jerking a thumb in Ojama Yellow's direction. He was a little annoyed; Juudai was one of the few people he could have reasonably expected to know who he was yelling at. He turned back to the Ojama standing on his shoulder. "What do _you_ want? Can't you see I'm busy!"

"But Big Brother, it's reeeeeeeally important!" Ojama Yellow complained. "You gotta come quick! We saw that guy..." His voice trailed off, and he faded from view.

"Dammit, they're out of range," Manjoume snarled. He looked at Juudai. "Hey, I'm gonna have to call this duel off. But don't think it's 'cause I'm scared of losing to you or anything, because we _both_ know I would have won this, but there's something I've got to do, so I'm out of here."

"What? But we just _started_!" Juudai whined, but it was too late. Manjoume had already shut off his Duel Disk and gone dashing out of the arena.

"This had better be good," he muttered as he ran. "You twits just cost me a duel!"

He made a beeline for the Obelisk Blue dorms, grumbling all the way. He had to sneak carefully onto the grounds - for one reason and another, he wasn't always very welcome near the Obelisk Blue dorm. He took a backwards route, looping widely around the building and coming toward it from the woods, avoiding the main trails where he might accidentally encounter any of his former dorm-mates who might try to hustle him back to Osiris Red. As it was, he made it safely to the back of the house and crouched in the bushes where he hoped his black clothing would help him stay out of sight.

"All right, guys," he said softly. "What have you got for me?"

Immediately, the transparent figures of his three spirits appeared around him.

"We saw him tear it up!" wailed Ojama Black. "It was awful!"

"Saw him tear what up?" asked Manjoume, instantly on alert.

"The card!" said Ojama Yellow. "He tore it up!"

"You mean he tore up that stupid serpent card he's always talking about? Why would he do that?"

"I don't know!" Yellow replied. "I just heard him say he'd got all the use out of it he could, and then he tore it all to pieces and threw it out the window!"

"Dammit! That was our evidence," Manjoume muttered. "Now what are we going to do? Never mind, I don't expect you to answer that. Just keep watching, okay, and tell me if he does anything else important! I've gotta go talk to Misawa."

The Ojamas vanished, and Manjoume crept out of the shrubbery and headed for safer territory, ducking back into the forest. Once he was safely out of the range where he could have expected to be seen or heard by his schoolmates, he took out his cell phone and placed a call. He waited until he heard Misawa's voice answering him.

"We've got a situation with Hatori," Manjoume said.

"Not to worry," answered Misawa calmly. "I've already, as they say, got the goods on him. I've placed a call to Hayato at Industrial Illusions. He's going to find out for us if that card is a fake or not."

"It's worse than a fake. It doesn't exist," said Manjoume.

Misawa skipped a beat. "Beg pardon?"

"I mean it's gone. It's destroyed. He tore it up."

Manjoume could almost hear Misawa's eyes snap open. "He did _what_? When? Why? How do you know?"

"I have reliable eyewitnesses. They just now told me they heard him say he'd gotten all the use he could out of the card, and then he tore it up!"

"But that makes no sense," Misawa said, "unless..."

"Aw, don't go all mysterious on me now. What's the deal?"

"Unless he's planning to make a break for it," Misawa finished. "He can't make any money without the card, so he wouldn't tear it up unless he were done here."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning somebody had better catch him before he leaves the island."

"I'm on it," said Manjoume. "Already on my way."

"So am I. He's probably heading for the docks. That's the only way off the island, so hurry that way and we'll see if we can cut him off before he gets there."

"Can do."

They broke off the connection. Misawa had started out the door as soon as he'd heard the news, and now he was racing out of the Ra dorm and running as quickly as he could down the paths to the docks. He skidded to a halt as he came closer to the waterside and stopped to take stock of the situation. There didn't appear to be any people around. That was good if it meant that Misawa had beaten Hatori to the docks, but what if it meant that his guess had been wrong? If Hatori had an alternate method of leaving the island, then they might end up waiting here for hours while their target slipped off in a different direction. If that was the case, there was no way the two of them could patrol the whole island, and there was not enough time to rally anyone else. No, Misawa would have to trust his instincts for this. He knew Hatori was guilty of _something_, and an attempt at escape was only a matter of time. Misawa picked out an out-of-the-way place where he would hopefully not be spotted while still being able to keep a good watch himself, and settled in to wait.

He didn't have to wait long, but it was still longer than he expected before he finally saw Hatori sauntering along the path. He didn't seem to be in any particular hurry, which made Misawa frown a little. Either the man was very sure of himself, or Misawa had made a miscalculation somewhere. He decided to take a risk. He stepped out of his hiding place.

"Hatori?" he called. "Are you looking for something?"

Hatori glanced over at Misawa, and his vague expression turned into something much more menacing.

"Yes," he said. In a swift movement, he crossed the space between them and seized on Misawa's collar. "You."

"What? What?" All Misawa could do was splutter as Hatori dragged him down the path in the direction of the main building.

"You'll see," Hatori replied with a smirk.

As they drew nearer to the school building, they encountered Manjoume, who looked surprised by this development.

"Misawa, what's going on?" he called.

"Things have not gone according to plan," said Misawa curtly.

He made an effort to free himself, but Hatori had a very good grip on him, and any attempt to pull away was met by a hand clenching with breathtaking force on his neck. He quickly realized that unless he wanted to be choked senseless, the only thing he could do was to keep walking and not make a fuss. Manjoume trailed behind, looking uncertain as to what he should be doing. As they came closer to the main building, several more curious students joined the procession. When they reached the front steps of the school, Hatori released him, thrusting him away so roughly that he stumbled and almost fell.

"What did you do that for?" Misawa demanded, rubbing his neck. "You can't treat me like this - you're not even a teacher!"

"I don't have to be a teacher to punish someone who wrongs me," Hatori replied.

"What are you talking about?" asked Misawa. "I haven't done anything to you!" Admittedly he had been _planning_ to do something to him, but he hadn't had a chance to do it yet, so how could Hatori know about it?

"Don't lie to me!" Hatori replied. "You know exactly what you've done! You've stolen my card!"

Misawa felt a sinking feeling as he suddenly realized what was going on. In his hurry to trap Hatori, he had ended up being trapped himself! With the card destroyed, there was no way to prove he _hadn't_ stolen it, and countering by saying that Hatori had torn it up himself would hardly be convincing, especially when he couldn't say how he knew it had happened. Still...

"How can you say that?" Misawa replied. "You have no proof! There is not the slightest shred of evidence that would indicate I've done such a thing. Where do you get the nerve to make such baseless accusations?"

"Don't you play innocent," said Hatori. "You've been just a little too interested in that card ever since I came to this island. Don't think I didn't see you eavesdropping on Principal Sameshima and me when I came here. You've been poking around asking nosy questions and trying to get your hands on that card. That's why you came to class early today, wasn't it? You were trying to get more information on it. I saw you copying everything about it into your notebook."

"That doesn't prove anything!" said Misawa, exasperated. This was ridiculous - if there was a thief here, it certainly wasn't him, and he resented having to stand trial in front of all these people. "Everyone in the school is interested in that card! I'm hardly the only one who has looked at it, so why am I the only suspect?"

"So you swear you're innocent?" asked Hatori.

"I swear I haven't stolen that card!" Misawa replied. "I haven't touched it or seen it since you showed it to me this morning, and I put it back in your hands so you can't claim I stole it then. You can search my pockets and my bookbag and my whole room if you want to, but I haven't got it!"

"Fine. I'll take you up on that," Hatori replied.

Misawa stared at him a moment, thinking, _What is this character up to?_ Nevertheless, if what Manjoume said was true, then the card no longer existed, so it would be impossible to plant any incriminating evidence on him. He knew there was nothing in his room to be found, and denying the search now would only serve to make him look guilty. He really had no better choice than to go along with this crazy scheme and hope he could see a way out of it before whatever trap Hatori was laying closed around him. He nodded his agreement and began leading the way to his dorm room.

As he walked, Manjoume fell into step next to him.

"What's going on?" Manjoume hissed.

"A trick," Misawa whispered back. "A maneuver to hide his trail. If he just vanished from the island, people might go looking for him. But if his card vanishes, he's got a logical reason to leave, and people will be too busy gossiping about a card thief in their midst to care that he's gone." He grimaced. "This one is slyer than I thought he'd be. I've underestimated him."

"So what does he want to search your room for?" Manjoume asked.

Misawa shrugged. "He's probably looking for the notebook I was writing in earlier. I knew I should have been more careful not to let him see it... Now he's going to try to use it to prove I've been plotting to rob him."

"That's what you get for snooping," said Manjoume philosophically.

"You did it too!"

"Yeah, but I didn't get caught, did I?"

It was hard to argue with logic like that. Misawa decided to quit complaining, and instead simply walked silently to the Ra Yellow dorm, where he led his train of curious followers up the stairs to his room. He flung open his door and gestured at his room, which was painfully neat except for his usual scribbling on the walls, which never disappeared for very long.

"Well, here it is! Have at it!" he said, standing back and waving his arm dramatically. He felt a bit like the villain in a play but wasn't sure what else to do. He stood back and watched, smoldering, as Hatori searched his room.

It was about that time that Misawa realized his second mistake. If it had been only the notes he'd made that morning that Hatori found, he might still have been able to talk his way out of the situation. Unfortunately, Misawa was betrayed by his own intellectual curiosity. He generally liked to keep his computer turned on during the day, and it was still on now. In fact, it was still on one of the pages he'd been using earlier when he'd been researching the mystery card. Hatori noticed it immediately and reached for the mouse.

"Here, stop that! I didn't give you permission to use that!" Misawa protested before he could stop himself. He was protective of his computer.

"You said I could search the room," Hatori replied. "This is part of your room. And it's interesting, too. You've been doing a lot of research lately, haven't you?" He gestured at the list of websites Misawa had visited in the last few days. "If you do your homework as thoroughly as you've researched me and my Jade Serpent card, you must have the best grades in the school. How long have you been planning this?"

Misawa stared into Hatori's eyes and thought, _He really does think I was planning to steal it!_ That was just enough to push Misawa over the edge.

"All right, have it your way! I confess!" he said. "I _did_ plot to steal your card, and I _did_ steal it! I've got it hidden away right now, so there!"

There was a moment of shocked silence. Misawa was actually rather pleased with himself. He suspected that Hatori hadn't been counting on a confession - more likely he had been simply trying to stir up some trouble and draw attention away from himself, knowing full well that nothing could ever be proven. He could slip off silently, hanging his head in shame at having made such false accusations, and no one would be surprised at his leaving. Now it was a whole new ball game. There was no way Hatori could leave now without raising suspicion, not until the whole matter was settled.

"You're... confessing?" asked Hatori, obviously confused. "Okay, fine. If you've stolen it, where is it?"

"I'm not telling," Misawa replied. "That would be counterproductive to stealing it, since if I told you, you'd just take it back, correct? I've hidden it. You'd have to search the whole island to figure out where it is." Thinking quickly, Misawa realized that if he let the matter stand there, there was still a chance that Hatori might declare that he'd given up and leave the island anyway. Misawa would have to think of something else to make sure he stuck around. "The only way I'll tell you what I've done with it is... if you beat me in a duel!"

A murmur of appreciation went through the crowd. Hatori began to look mildly panicked, and Misawa had to suppress a smile.

"Yeah, that's the perfect way to solve this!" said one of his classmates. "Let's have a duel!"

"We've all heard so much about your great duels, Hatori," said one of the girls. "Now is your chance to show us what you can really do!"

There was a chorus of agreement. Hatori seemed to realize he was trapped and took a deep breath.

"All right, then. If that's the way it's got to be," he said.

Misawa nodded. "I will give you twenty-four hours to prepare your deck. I'll meet you in front of the school."

"Fine," said Hatori. He cast a look at the people watching him, not quite managing to not look nervous. "Twenty-four hours."

He slumped off, looking quite unlike his usual jaunty self. A number of people followed him, calling encouragement, questions, and advice, which he appeared to ignore. Misawa decided decided to close and lock the door before anything else peculiar could happen. No sooner had he done so, however, when someone knocked on it, and Misawa opened it to see that there were now a number of people standing in the hall, but they were the kind of people he didn't mind talking to.

"Did you really steal a card?" asked Juudai, wide-eyed. Behind him, Shou and Kenzan were looking equally baffled. Fubuki, as usual, looked as if he had rather been enjoying the show, while Asuka looked as if she didn't know what to make of it all but wasn't sure she approved. Manjoume, being the only one who knew what was going on, simply followed quietly and made a game attempt to look sympathetic.

"No, I didn't steal any cards," Misawa answered tiredly. "It's all very long and complicated. The short version is, there never was a card to steal. It was a fake."

There was a predictable series of outbursts, best summed up by Kenzan exclaiming, "Why didn't you say something, then?"

"Because everyone in the school was wrapped around his fingers," Misawa answered, "so no one would take my word over his, and I had no solid proof until a short while ago. Obviously I proved it a bit too late."

"So let me get this straight," said Shou. "I gave him an entire month's allowance to see a _forgery_?"

"I called Hayato about it, and he sent me an e-mail about it not long ago. He says he asked Pegasus, and Pegasus says he's never heard of such a card. I don't think you can get a better source than that, when it comes to Duel Monsters," Misawa replied.

"What a _creep_," said Kenzan, his eyes flashing. "If I could get my hands on him, I'd..." He didn't finish the sentence, but bared his teeth in a fashion that suggested he'd be more than willing to eat Hatori alive with a dash of soy sauce.

"That might not be such a good idea," said Juudai, attempting to settle his friend.

"Why not?" Shou muttered. He still seemed to be fuming over the loss of his spending money. "He can't taste any worse than the stuff they serve for lunch."

"Well, it looks like they're going to settle it with a duel, now!" said Fubuki cheerfully.

"I doubt that will settle the issue on its own," said Misawa thoughtfully, "though I suppose if I manage an easy win, it might cast some doubt on him. He's been painting himself as a championship duelist."

"You mean he's not that either?" asked Shou.

"You want to see what he did to my deck?" Manjoume retorted, holding out the stack of cards as evidence. "I asked him to help me tune it up, and he turned it into something the lamest goof in this school wouldn't use!"

Asuka looked distinctly uncomfortable. Her cheeks reddened a bit, and she looked determinedly off in any direction she could find that didn't require making eye-contact with anyone.

Shou looked at the cards Manjoume handed him and made a face. "Misawa, you're going to win this duel _easy_."

"I hate to make assumptions of that nature," Misawa replied. "I don't want to find out he'd been holding back. He's surprised me more than once already." He made a face. "Unfortunately, even if I win the duel, it won't help my predicament much. What I really want to do is bring the truth to light, and we can't do that without proof. Unfortunately, unless we can persuade Pegasus to fly out here tomorrow and explain things for us, I don't know where we're going to get that proof before Hatori leaves the island."

"Too bad we can't get him to confess," said Fubuki. "That would probably work."

"Oh, come on," said Juudai. "How are we supposed to make him do that? Nobody would own up to something like that."

"Maybe," said Misawa thoughtfully, "but there is more than one way to get a confession out of someone..."

* * *

Misawa stood on the walk in front of the school, resisting the urge to pace. He was also resisting the urge to yawn - he'd spent most of the night pulling together a new deck that would serve his purpose. It was an unusual deck for him. He usually designed a deck to win, but for this duel, it didn't matter whether he won or lost, so long as he managed to get that one card on the field...

"Don't worry!" Juudai told him cheerfully. "Everything is going to work out just fine! Your cards won't let you down, and neither will we."

Misawa looked up at his assembled friends. No matter how things turned out, it still meant a lot to him that they were here to support him. This would have been a much more difficult feat if he was alone, but with some backup, he might just stand a chance. The results should be interesting, anyway.

Of course, his friends weren't the only ones there watching him. Hatori had plenty of fans here, too - more than his share, Misawa thought, watching the people staring at him suspiciously. He stifled a sigh. Maybe he had been a bit hasty, owning up to the card theft that way. Oh, well, no help for it now. He did his best to pretend he didn't see them.

"It's about time for him to get here," said Shou, looking at his watch.

"Maybe he chickened out," Kenzan suggested.

"He couldn't even if he wanted to," said Manjoume smugly. "We took turns watching him all night. He didn't go anywhere." Misawa wasn't entirely sure of who Manjoume meant by "we", but judging by the smug expression, he guessed Fubuki was also involved somewhere. He suffered a vision of Fubuki sitting on top of the Obelisk dorm dressed as a ninja, keeping watch from the shadows. He shook it off.

However, it appeared that Manjoume was right about Hatori's whereabouts, because he arrived a moment later, in the company of his entourage and looking more certain of himself than he had the last time Misawa had seen him. Either he had something up his sleeve (which Misawa wasn't willing to rule out) or he had convinced himself that this duel wasn't likely to lead to any problems for him.

_We'll see about that,_ Misawa thought.

"Well, Misawa," said Hatori, "I don't know what you think to gain by doing this, since you've already admitted your guilt. Everyone is still going to know the truth, whether you beat me or not."

"Let's just say I have something I want to prove," said Misawa. "So here are the stakes I propose: If I win, we'll forget you ever accused me of stealing your card, and you can turn around and go back to wherever you came from. If you win... I'll let you decide."

"Fair enough," Hatori replied. Misawa resisted the urge to smile. Of course Hatori would accept the terms! Either way, he'd get what he wanted: a clean getaway.

"Excellent," said Misawa. "Then I'll let you have the first move. Duel!"

The two of them fired up their Duel Disks and made their draws. Misawa had to admit that at least Hatori handled his disk like he knew what he was doing. If nothing else, he had learned how to _look_ like a real duelist. Hatori studied his cards for a moment.

"I'll summon the Mad Dog of Darkness in attack mode!" he declared. "Turn end."

"That's all?" Misawa said, surprised in spite of himself.

"What else do I need?" Hatori replied. "You can't get past a monster this strong on the first move! There's no point in filling my deck with unnecessary spells and traps when everyone knows the game is truly won with monsters."

"Is that a fact," Misawa murmured. "Well, then, you won't mind if I use a few myself. I'll start by summoning Big Shield Guardna in defense mode. Then I'll play... Graceful Charity!" As Hatori watched in puzzlement, Misawa drew three cards and sent two to the graveyard.

_Not what I needed,_ he thought, disappointed, _but this will do for now._

"I place one card face-down and end my turn," he finished.

"So, you're planning to hide behind that shield, are you?" Hatori said. "No one ever won a duel by just defending, you know. No wonder you're just a mediocre Ra Yellow student."

Misawa gritted his teeth to avoid saying something that would have been unsportsmanlike.

"Make your move," he said.

"Fine. I summon Luster Dragon in attack mode. Now there are two powerful monsters facing you down. How long do you think it's going to take before your shield cracks?"

"A fairly long time, since neither of your monsters has the attack power to get past my Big Shield Guardna," Misawa replied. "Are you done?"

"For now, yes. Turn end."

"Good." Misawa made his draw and sighed a little. Still not what he was looking for! He really wasn't used to this business of relying on luck and intuition, yet, no matter how good it sounded in theory. "I summon Ebon Magician Curran in attack mode!"

A cute if slightly sullen-looking little girl in a black dress and bunny ears appeared on the field. Hatori stared.

"You're going to face me down with that?" he exclaimed. "She only has twelve hundred attack points!"

"She's good enough," said Misawa. "For every standby phase of mine that passes, you lose three hundred life points for every monster of yours on the field."

"Fine," said Hatori. "She isn't going to stay on the field long enough to make a difference. For my move-"

"I'm not done yet," said Misawa. "I play the magic card Pot of Greed! I draw two cards from my deck and add them to my hand... and one of those cards, as it turns out, is Reload. That allows me to put my hand back into my deck, shuffle my deck, and draw the same number of cards as I put in the deck. Then I'll place one card face-down and end my turn."

"You continue to show your lack of skill," said Hatori, gently, as a teacher might scold an arrogant young student. "A good deck should be constructed so that you always have useable cards in your hand."

"Thank you for telling me that. I'll keep it in mind," said Misawa evenly. "Oddly enough, I seem to be winning at this point, despite my _lack of skill_."

"Not for long," said Hatori. "You may think you're going to cost me some points with your magician, but she's about to cost you a lot more! Mad Dog of Darkness, attack that rabbit!"

The dog moved to obey, lunging for the frightened Ebon Magician.

"Trap card, activate! Attack Guidance Armor!" Misawa declared. "This trap allows me to redirect your attack in any direction I please - and I say your dog attacks Big Shield Guardna!"

Hatori cringed as his life points dropped by five hundred.

"Care to try that again?" asked Misawa cheerfully.

Hatori snarled. "You can't possibly have two of those traps! You're just trying to bluff me into not attacking again! Well you can forget that idea! Luster Dragon, attack Ebon Magician Curran!"

The dragon attacked. Misawa almost swore that it looked reluctant, as if even it realized that this was a bad move.

"You're right," said Misawa. "I don't have another Attack Guidance Armor. I do, however, have a Magic Cylinder."

"What?" A flash of amazement crossed Hatori's face. Then a flash of flame crossed it instead, as the dragon fired into the cylinder, and a burst of flame spurted out the other end, directly at Hatori. His life went down to 1600 points. The dragon slunk back to its place, looking slightly ashamed of itself.

"Anything else?" Misawa asked.

Hatori looked thoughtful, but apparently he didn't want to risk the possibility that Misawa might have something else destructive up his sleeve.

"Fine," he said. "I summon Command Knight in defense mode. Your turn."

There was some muttering in the crowd. Obviously this was not the duel the students had been expecting.

"What's wrong with you, Hatori?" someone called.

"Yeah, you're not playing right! You're letting him mop the floor with you!" said someone else.

"Come on! You should be able to do a lot better than this! What about all those stories you told us?"

"Yeah, you're supposed to be a championship duelist! Pull it together!"

A boy in a red jacket began to laugh. "Man, he's dueling worse than I do! I want a go at him next! It'd be nice to win a duel, for a change!"

The audience broke out in jeers. Hatori flushed and glared daggers at Misawa.

"Make a fool out of me, will you?" he hissed. "Don't think you've got the upper hand just because you're winning a stupid game."

"That remains to be seen," said Misawa mildly. He placed his hand on his deck, wished as hard as he could for a miracle, and drew. He looked down. He smiled.

_Maybe there is something to this lucky draw business, after all!_

"All right, now it's time to really get down to business," said Misawa. "First, Ebon Magician Curran's effect activates. You lose nine hundred points."

Hatori grimaced as his life counter dropped to a mere seven hundred points.

"Next, I'll sacrifice Ebon Magician Curran and Big Shield Guardna to summon... The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La!"

"What?" Hatori yelped. "But that's impossible! You can't have that card! I already..."

"Oh, really?" said Misawa. "I thought you were very convinced yesterday that I _did_ have that card."

Hatori flushed as he realized he might have just made a fatal slip of the tongue. He hurried to cover his tracks. "That's not what I meant! I was just surprised to see you had the gall to use it against me."

"That isn't what you said," Misawa replied. "What you said was, 'You can't have that card!' Now, I think that's a funny thing to say. It still sounds very much to me like you're more surprised by me having it than you do by me using it."

"You haven't used it yet," Hatori pointed out. "You're bluffing. Let's see you use it."

"All right, then, I will."

Misawa's two monsters vanished, and were replaced by an enormous serpentine beast, all scales and claws and wings and horns. It coiled its scaly body and looked malevolently down on Hatori.

"That..." said Hatori slowly. "That doesn't look a thing like the Jade Serpent of Shangri- La."

"That's what you think," Misawa replied. "Actually, it was _your_ card that doesn't look a thing like the Jade Serpent of Shangri-La. You see, unlike your card, _mine_ isn't a forgery."

There was a murmur in the crowds. Hatori went slightly pale.

"You're crazy - that's crazy talk," he said.

"What an eloquent rebuttal," said Misawa. "You may have thought you were fooling us all with your fake card, but you underestimated us, Hatori - if that's even your real name. You see, a friend of ours, Hatao Maeda, works for Industrial Illusions, and he's friendly with Pegasus."

"We're all pretty friendly with Pegasus," Juudai chipped in. "He's a great guy. Real agreeable."

Hatori looked at Juudai and his friends, who all nodded their confirmation. Several of the other students chimed in with their agreement as well. Most of them had heard of Hayato's stroke of luck in landing a job working for the founder of Duel Monsters, and it was hard to miss all of Pegasus's recent comings and goings.

"So what of it?" said Hatori warily.

"So," Misawa replied, "as soon as I began to suspect what you were up to, I put in a call to my friend and asked him to check with Pegasus to verify that your card was real. And as it turns out, it was not. I say again, your card was a fraud. _This_, however, is real - the genuine Jade Serpent of Shangri-La, sent to me by Pegasus himself to put an end to your scam! That is why I agreed to this duel - so I could show everyone what you really are. You're not a championship duelist, and you never owned a rare card you didn't scam someone out of, and you _definitely_ never owned The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La. You're nothing but a common con-man."

His little speech prompted a burst of chatter from the onlookers, a grand-scale version of what Juudai and the gang had done when Misawa had first told _them_ what was going on. No one, it seemed, was very happy to hear that they had given up their pocket-money or prized cards to look at a fake. Nor did they seem very inclined to believe Misawa might not be telling the truth now that he had dueled a "championship duelist" to a standstill without even trying very hard.

"All your games are over," said Misawa, "including this one. I play the spell card Lightning Vortex. By discarding one card from my hand, I can destroy all face-up monsters on the field... leaving you totally helpless when my serpent attacks you directly!"

It was all over in a flash of lightning. Hatori slumped to the ground as his life points dropped to zero. Misawa went to stand over him. He smiled sweetly.

"By the way," he said. "That card I just used? That wasn't The Jade Serpent of Shangri- La. I made that bit up. That was the Serpent Night Dragon. And if that doesn't prove you don't know enough about dueling, I don't know what will."

Hatori straightened up. Surprisingly, he started to laugh - a tired laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. He gave Misawa a strained smile.

"Well, done," he said. "Very well done indeed, Misawa. You've done your homework much more thoroughly than I expected. You truly are a clever young man. I admit, I did not play my cards well enough in any respect. Clearly I have a lot to learn."

"That's good to hear you say," Misawa replied, "because I have a feeling you've got a long stretch of free time coming up."

Hatori looked around. He was hemmed in on all sides by students, who did not look particularly pleased with him at the moment. He sighed.

"It certainly looks that way," he said. "Well, perhaps I'll learn how to play Duel Monsters a little better, so maybe next time I won't be caught so easily."

"You've gotta be kidding," said Juudai. "You mean you're going to start over again as soon as they let you go?"

"Of course," Hatori replied. "Do you stop playing cards just because you lose a duel? No, I'll be back. I love the game too much to quit."

Misawa just shook his head. "Kenzan, a hand?"

"Right!" Kenzan agreed. He seized on Hatori and flashed one of his too-sharp smiles, the kind that made him look as if he was considering how you'd taste with a little salt and pepper. "Come on, march!"

Hatori gave his onlookers a final salute and allowed himself to be hustled off toward the main building to have a chat with campus security. A number of people trailed after him, making good and sure he didn't think of a way to weasel out of his confession. Misawa slumped against one of the stones lining the walkway and gave a sigh of relief.

"I'm glad that's all done with," he said.

"I didn't know you had a card like that!" said Juudai. "It's seriously cool! How come you don't use it more often?"

"What, the Serpent Night Dragon? Well, it's a bit on the rare side," Misawa replied, "and it hasn't got a lot in the way of abilities, so I've never seen fit to build a deck around it. It's really more of a showpiece card than a functional one, so I mostly just keep it in a box."

"Well, it put on a good show today!" said Fubuki cheerfully. "I wouldn't mind having one of those. It rocks!"

"I just want to get my Ojamas back," said Manjoume. "Think it's okay to raid his room?"

"Probably," said Fubuki. "Come on, let's go."

The two of them drifted off in the direction of the Blue dorm. Asuka scampered after them.

"Manjoume, wait," she called.

He stopped in his tracks. "Yes?"

"I... I guess I ought to apologize," she said. "I mean, for being so harsh about you not liking him. I shouldn't have given you such a hard time."

"Oh," he said. "Well... that's okay. I mean, you didn't know..."

Asuka blushed slightly. "Well, actually, I had a feeling something was up after he, um, helped me improve my deck."

"Let me guess - he didn't do yours any favors, either," Manjoume said archly.

"Not really," she admitted. "It took me three hours to get it all back the way I wanted it. I was too embarrassed to admit I'd been fooled, so I just... tried to brush it off."

"Oh, well... I guess it's okay," said Manjoume. "I'll tell you what - you still owe me a duel sometime. You can pay me with that and we'll call it even. Deal?"

Asuka thought it over. "I'd say that's the fairest offer I've heard in a long time. Deal."

There was a moment of silence as they smiled shyly at each other, until Fubuki piped up, "Why don't you get _her_ to take you to get your cards back?"

"I'll deal with this myself, thanks!" Manjoume snapped back. He looked back at Asuka. "Though I guess you could come along, if you want. I mean, it doesn't make much difference either way."

She shrugged. "I guess I could tag along. I have nothing better to do today, anyway." She paused. "Why do you have to get your cards back? What did you do with them?"

"It's a long story," said Manjoume.

As the three of them walked off, Juudai wandered over to where Misawa was sitting and sat down next to him. Shou and Kenzan, never too far behind him, went to lean on either side of the stone.

"You know," said Juudai, "even after everything he did, I just can't hate the guy."

"I know what you mean," Misawa replied. "I understand where he's coming from, at least." Maybe, he thought, that was how he'd have ended up if he hadn't had good influences like dueling and his friends to fall back on. It was easy to slip into the temptation of thinking he was so much cleverer than anyone else that he could do whatever he wished...

"I hope he does take up dueling," said Juudai. "I mean, for real. That's _totally_ a better game than what he's been playing."

"You're right," Misawa agreed. "I hope he does, too."

* * *

With so many witnesses to his confession, Hatori had no choice but to spill everything to the campus police, who were swift enough in contacting the proper authorities. They confirmed that the man they had in custody, who had been passing under the pseudonym of Hatori Uono for the past few months, was wanted on a number of charges involving parting trusting people from their money. He was hustled off to the mainland to have a long chat with the good people of law enforcement.

There had been some excitement regarding returning the money and cards that Hatori had taken back to its rightful owners; a number of people were attempting to claim that they had paid more than they actually had. Most of the cards had made it safely back to their owners, but as for the money, the school gave up and used it to throw an ice cream party for the whole school instead. Most everyone had been satisfied with that.

Now Misawa, who had been staring moodily out his window, went and fell back on his bed with a sigh. On the one hand, he was relieved that all the hullabaloo was over, that his good name was restored, and that everything had gone back to normal. Normal, on Academy Island, was almost disappointing. Misawa found he rather missed having a mission. It seemed like now that he had completed his heroic stand against the villain of the day, everyone had forgotten how much of a role he had played in it. Somehow it was easier to remember how the charming Hatori had swindled most of the island, and harder to remember how all-around nice guy Misawa had made life go back to being relatively uninteresting. It was hard to believe anyone appreciated his efforts.

He was brought out of his thoughts by a knock on the door.

"Yes?" he called. "Who is it?"

"Package to sign for, sir," said a voice from the hallway.

Misawa got up and opened his door, and was met by a neatly uniformed deliveryman holding a clipboard fat manilla envelope.

"Sign here, please," said the deliveryman, thrusting the clipboard forward.

Misawa bemusedly signed his name on the dotted line. "What brought this on?"

"Don't ask me. I just deliver them," the man replied. He glanced at his clipboard briefly before passing the package to Misawa. It was lighter than it looked like it would be. "Here you go. Enjoy. Have a nice day, sir."

The man walked off, leaving Misawa to inspect the mysterious package. He was both pleased and surprised to find it bore the address of Hayato's apartment in America. He ripped it open and pulled out a letter, a vast quantity of tissues, and a smaller envelope. He read the letter first. It read:

_Dear Misawa, _

_We heard what happened with you and the con-man. Wish I could have been there to see it! Anyway, this is just kind of a thank-you for what you did. Hope everything's going great down there! _

_Your old chum, _

_Hayato Maeda_

That was pleasant but not very informative, so Misawa set the letter aside so he could write back later, and then turned his attention to the envelope. It had his name written on it in an unfamiliar curly handrwriting that aroused his curiosity. He very carefully tore it open. A card fell out. He picked it up and stared at it, blinking in surprise. Though the details were slightly different, the overall image was the same, and the title was identical: The Jade Serpent of Shangri-La. The biggest difference was that in the box where the card's effects would have gone, there was an added line: _With gratitude, P.J. Crawford._ Misawa stared for a moment. Then he smiled slowly. Tucking the card safely in his pocket, he got up and went looking for the others.

He found his friends in the Osiris Red dorm, as usual, sitting around Manjoume's big screen TV and watching a recording of the KC Grand Prix finals. Misawa leaned casually in the doorway and flashed a cat-who-stole-the-cream smile.

"Hello, everyone," he said. "I'll bet you can't guess what I've got."

"Homework?" Shou quipped.

"A headache?" suggested Kenzan.

"An attitude problem?" said Manjoume.

"Very funny," Misawa answered loftily. "What I've got is a reward for services rendered in the area of preventing card forgery. Specifically, I've just received in the mail a one-of-a-kind card from Pegasus himself."

"Ooh, let us see!" said Juudai.

"Yeah, let me see, let me see!" Shou chimed in.

"Oh, I don't know," said Misawa. "What will you give me for the privilege?"

Instantly, Misawa found himself being pelted with popcorn, empty soda cans, and sofa pillows.

"It was a joke! A joke!" he protested, trying to shield himself from the rain of objects. _He_ was laughing, anyway, even if they weren't. He realized he'd had no need to feel down: things would _never_ get too boring on Academy Island.

**The End**


End file.
